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Studies of China's ruling elites need to be set in the historical context of their formation and expansion, and the resurgence of the notion of "bloodline" (xuetong lun) and its evolution in the last decade into the red-genes theory (hongse jiyin) have increased this need. Yet there is a gap between the scholarly literature in English on China's ruling elites and academic and non-academic publications in Chinese on the subject, especially on the Yan'an period (late 1935 until early 1948) of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) expansion. Both advocates of the bloodline concept and the red genes theory are connected to Yan'an, as are numerous other contemporary ruling class families. Based on an analysis of Chinese publications, this article examines understudied aspects of the "going to Yan'an" phenomenon during the Anti-Japanese War from a social positioning perspective. Through considering Yan'an as part of social positioning options and how new groups developed there, this article offers a new perspective on the making of China's post-1949 ruling elites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European-born children of immigrants, often referred to as the second generation, play an important role in the academic debate about integration and assimilation. The successful second generation, defined in terms of possessing a higher education diploma and or professional position, receives increasing attention. In this special issue, we will look at the most successful group: the upcoming “elite” among the descendants of migrants from Turkey, based on data gathered in the ELITES, Pathways to Success project. In this research project we deliberately selected on the dependent variable: being professionally successful in managerial jobs in the corporate business sector, the corporate law sector and the education sector. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We introduce what we have coined the multiplier effect. We explain the steep upward mobility of children of low-educated immigrants by studying how they overcome obstacles on their regular pathway, via alternative routes or through loopholes in the education and labour market system. The idea of the multiplier effect is that they virtually propel themselves forward in their careers. Essential is that each successful step forward offers new possibilities on which they build, thereby accumulating cultural and social capital and multiplying their chances of success. Initial small differences with their less successful co-ethnic peers generate an increasingly wider gap over time. Cultural and social capital theories primarily explain the reproduction of inequalities in society. The multiplier effect explains the breaking of the perpetual cycle of this reproduction, enabling steep upward mobility even when this group does not initially possess the right cultural and social capital to be successful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how diasporic and transnational communities evolve by analysing how networks of power are established and enhanced, both locally and transnationally. As part of a process of diversification in the Senegalese community in Italy, for example, a new elite of educated young men is emerging. This process of elite formation proves to be both local and transnational in multiple ways. It is argued that focusing on processes of elite formation within migrant communities will not only enhance our understanding of the internal dynamics of these communities but will also show how these may intersect with processes of power in the host country, the country of origin and the larger diaspora. Such an approach can contribute more generally to the study of elite change and continuity under globalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]